Shopping Fix

Jacob has been feeling so much better, thank goodness. His happy mood is returning, and he's more energetic again!

Yesterday morning Bob, Jacob and I headed to the outlet mall in Edinburgh. I needed a few more things for Jacob's fall clothes, some maternity clothes for myself, and just wanted to look around. It ended up being a beautiful day, and even though the sun got hot, we stayed in the shade and Jacob was happy. He was mostly happy because he was able to run everywhere since Bob was with me and he didn't have to stay in the stroller too long. We ended up getting more than we intended, but were very pleased. Jacob needed new shoes, so we hit up the Stride Rite outlet and found Saucony shoes for Jacob for only $19.99. He's off the "baby" wall and onto the boy side of the store, which just seems crazy to me. We also found him a fall jacket and two shirts, a few maternity tops, and some casual T-shirts for Bob. We then stopped for lunch and made it home in time for Jacob to take a nap and for me to sort through all the fall clothes we have for Jacob.

I bought Jacob's fall/winter clothes at the end of the season this past year when everything goes on clearance, and was afraid they were going to be too big. But, thank goodness Jacob decided to have a growth spurt in the past month, and everything will be perfect by the time September/October weather kicks in. It's so fun for me to pull out all of the clothes I bought him for only like $2 a piece. I'm able to buy him name brand clothes for less than I could find at a resale shop, so for now buying ahead works well for us! I even have his snow pants and winter jacket this year - he has an Osh Kosh set that was originally $85 that I bought for $10. Unfortunately, even if we have a boy this time around, most of the clothes won't work since our kids will be born at complete opposite times of the year!

The rest of the day yesterday was spent at home relaxing and playing as a family. I got some laundry done, Bob made dinner, and then we headed outside for a walk. When we got home from the walk, Bob decided to cut the grass, which actually worked out because the little boy who lives behind us came down the street and the two of them played while I caught up a little bit with my neighbor. Her boy is 4, and she also has another boy who is 9 months old. We actually have quite a few kids in the two cul-de-sacs we live on, which is nice.

This morning was beautiful, and we headed to Holliday Park. We LOVE this park, and even though it is a far drive from our house, it's close to my parents and we can have Jacob nap here instead of driving all the way home. We played at the park, Jacob was fascinated with the bugs he found, and then we met my mom for lunch. Jacob loves going to parks, but he isn't fond of playground equipment just yet. He does it for a little while, but mostly likes to take off running through fields and play chase with us. His new shoes have been getting quite the workout the past two days!

Date Night

Tonight, Bob and I had a much needed date night. I realized how few nights we actually have left in the summer and asked mom and dad to watch Jacob. We headed to Don Pablos for some fajitas and then walked around Babies R Us. I laughed that we have changed so much in the past two years. When we were looking at gear and toys for Jacob we hadn't found our "favorites" yet, and were amazed at everything. Now we walked out empty handed because we didn't like any of the rattles they had. Why in the world would I want to pay $14.99 for a pirate octopus toy?! No thank you. I also think we just want to see what we are having to know if we should buy pink or blue stuff. With Jacob we bought a few things unisex, but now we just want to wait. It is nice though that we have so much unisex stuff from Jacob so we can reuse so many things even if we have a girl.

We then headed to Coldstone and brought ice cream home for the whole family. Jacob devoured his, which is unlike him because he usually only takes a bite or two. But, from being sick I think he's just so out of it. He's been cranky all day, which is so unlike him, and then he ended up taking a nap at 11:15 and didn't eat lunch until 2:30. Weird day!

Bye trains, hello strep

It has been such a crazy past week, even though we really didn't have anything planned. Thursday night my dad's parents got into town from Alabama, and it was the first time we had seen them since our wedding four years ago. And, the first time they got to meet Jacob! It was SO nice to see them, and Grandpa brought us his homemade jams and a set of coins from 2008, the year Jacob was born. My brother and I both have some really cool sets of coins that he gave to us, and it's so fun to have some to give to Jacob when he's old enough to understand. They were suppose to stay Thursday through Monday morning, but my Grandma isn't doing so well and really wanted to get home to her own surroundings and her routine. Even though it was a short visit, it was a treasured one.

Friday morning was hot, but not terrible, and we set up Jacob's pool and water table in the front yard since that is the ONLY place we have shade. Bob and I now refuse to buy our next house if it doesn't have some shade in the backyard, even just one tree. We hate not having a tree in our backyard. I love that it's fenced so Jacob can run like crazy without me chasing him all the time, but I wish he had some area to cool off back there without having to head to the front yard. But, we had a great time and we beat the heat a little bit.

Saturday and Sunday were mostly quiet, with lots of time at home. Jacob started not feeling well, and we thought he just had a little summer cold. Then I saw his throat and it looked so red, so I took him to the doctor this morning and sure enough, he's got strep. For the first time. Poor guy. Also sad because I had to cancel his playdate for later this week.

This weekend I packed away his train collection. We've done it before, but this time he was angry. He just plays with trains so much, and when he starts getting into the routine of refusing to play with anything else I put them away for a while so he gets out other toys again. Sure enough, out come the Legos and the play kitchen is back in action. He still has his cars, so we can still race things and get our wheel fix!

I think I wrote in an earlier post about how I stocked up on school supplies since they are so cheap during back to school time. Well, I bought colored pencils not knowing if Jacob would be interested in them or not. But, he LOVES them! It's funny because he colors with crayons, but loses his interest in them sometimes. He loves paints and markers, but is just tolerant of crayons. But he goes to town with the colored pencils! He's starting to tell us what he's drawing - mostly train related items! It's so cool to see his imagination coming through art now. He's also figured out how to trace his own hand, and anyone else's hand. He traces, and then colors it in. He's getting the concept of staying in the lines, which is neat. He's also starting to try to write his name, which is so amazing! My mom and I both write his name on a paper for him, and just lately he's started to say "Jacob," and then start to try to write. He's making an upside down "J" and then some scribbles, and then a circle for the "o." Not sure how he picked it up, but more power to him! Especially since in general he's not super interested in letters yet. He has an alphabet puzzle he does sometimes, but he more so matches the colors than he realizes the letters.

We had to skip Gymboree this morning since we found out he has strep. Normally I don't care if we have to miss since you can make up classes so easily there, but this was the last week of the summer Bob could go with us, and Jacob LOVES having his daddy with him! Bob already starts back at school Monday for some curriculum mapping (thank you, extra money), and then his first real day is a week from Monday. We still have some things on our "summer list" that we want to do that clearly won't get done, but oh well! Jacob and I will do them when the weather gets a little cooler and he starts feeling better. The only thing we need to make sure we do is bring our last round of summer reading books back by this weekend since the program ends on the 31st. That way Jacob gets his last round of points and we can get some more prizes for him. Last year we stocked up on some board books and actually gave some of them to him at Christmas. This year he's gotten two balls, and we need to use some points to get the free kids meal.

In other library news, I actually checked out a book for myself finally. And, actually read it. I'm pretty sure it's the first book I have read cover to cover since college (embarrassing). I think I got burned out with books since I was an English major. I think one year I had to read like 30 novels between two literature classes in one semester alone, so some of the fun of reading got sucked out of me then! Well, my reading since then has gone from classics to Tori Spelling's "Mommywood." I love watching Tori and Dean's reality show, so I figured I'd read the book. It's an easy read, and I was done before I knew it. Pretty funny, too. Especially when she talks about how difficult it is to change a poopy swim diaper. I haven't had to do that yet, but I could only imagine. Those diapers are difficult just to get off, let alone trying to contain the poop.

Here's to hoping Jacob has a speedy recovery!

Fun at home

Here are some pictures of Jacob's room before the switch:

And his new bed:
He has now had three successful nights in his bed. He was waking up a few times in the night for so long, and for no reason. He wouldn't even open his eyes. And now, three full nights without a peep, just because he has his bed! Who knew?! I think he just didn't want his crib anymore! Bob and I haven't had this much sleep in months...from when he used to sleep through the night!

Yesterday was a nice, quiet day around the house. Bob had the whole day off, which was really nice. We played in the morning, headed to Gymboree where we pretended to make pizza, and then enjoyed a fun lunch at Burger King. Then we headed home where Jacob went down for his nap with Tigger, which is the first time he has ever slept with a stuffed animal. After Jacob's nap, I got a posterboard set up outside and we headed out to paint. We usually just squirt the paint onto a paper plate, but I saved the plastic mini-cupcake pans that come with these brownie minis we make sometimes, which was perfect for paint! Jacob had fun, and he was telling us what he was painting and loved experimenting with all of the different kinds of paint brushes we had out for him. We've painted like this a few times at home before, and it's just so nice to see how far he's come in a few months with his art abilities.

We then headed to Wal-Mart to get some odds and ends we needed, and then home for dinner. It cooled off enough after dinner to go for a walk around the neighborhood - although Jacob ran most of it until he looked too tired and rode in the stroller. We ended the evening with some play-doh fun. Jacob had fun pretending to have an ice cream cone, and then made some fish and had them eat some fish food.

Today we woke up and got ready to head to the museum. All Jacob wanted to do today was go play with the train table, which made it a little difficult. He has the museum layout memorized, so he just takes off towards the nearest train table. We still had a good time and did some other stuff besides trains, and then headed to the food court. Jacob won't eat a sandwich yet or anything, so we usually buy his lunch there and we pack a lunch for us. It works well, and Jacob feels like he gets a special lunch out, and we save a good chunk of money with only buying a toddler meal. Museum food is expensive! Bob and I enjoyed our sandwiches and Jacob was beyond ready to go home afterwards for a nap. Fun few days at home, and then Bob was off to work for the evening!

Slept like a baby

Transition to big boy bed was a success. Although, I realized how much I do know my son. I told everyone he probably wouldn't care. And...he didn't. He thinks it's cool he can climb up on his bed during the day, but as far as a transition or anything, he just doesn't care. He normally doesn't care about those things. He never cares what he wears. He definitely didn't show emotion when we gave him his booster seat at the table. I think he's just a kid that doesn't put a whole lot of thought into those things and just figures he'll do what is there. One thing Jacob does like though is that he has cars and trucks on his wall instead of Winnie the Pooh.

Bob had to work last night, I couldn't figure out the darn baby gate, so I ended up sleeping in his room to make sure everything went okay. I think he might be sleeping so well because he likes the pillow. Bob showed me how to work the gate this morning, so luckily it was only one night of a sore back for me!

I have pictures of his new room that I'll need to put up some time this week when I have more time. We still need to hang his valence, but other than that we are done. I removed his books and toys from his room for now until I know how he does in a bed. I don't want him in there playing in the middle of the night if he sees his toys there.

We all met my mom and dad for lunch today, and Jacob was so excited to see I had soup for lunch. "Yummy soup mommy!" So, he ate quite a bit of my lunch. And, he decided to dip his chicken nugget in my broccoli and cheese soup. Whatever he wants is fine with me! My mom taught him how to respond to a knock, knock joke finally. He use to just say "knock, knock," to you, let you respond, and then say "chips." Now, he'll say "who's there?" and then say "orange." I need to get it on video, because he is so funny saying who's there. He gets a little angry voice, like he's the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood.

His love for trains is now growing even more. He's now realizing which trains in his Thomas collection are steam engines, diesel, or short gauge engines. I can't believe these words really come from his mouth, but they do!

By the way...who knew transitioning into a big boy bed was so darn expensive! And, even with us not having to paint, already having the bedding and decor...but just having to get the bed and mattress, along with the sheets and safety gear, we were shocked. And believe me...costs don't usually shock me anymore! Well worth it though!

Last night in a crib

Today, Bob and I ran around like crazy people buying everything we need to switch Jacob's baby room of Winnie the Pooh over to his big boy room of cars and trucks. We aren't painting - we actually lucked out and painted Jacob's room a light green and our third bedroom a yellow-orange color and only used decals to decorate each room. So we are just swapping the decals from the playroom (which is currently cars and trucks) into Jacob's room and putting the Pooh decals in the other room, which will be for baby.

The cars and trucks decals were from Target, and luckily all of the bedding, lamp and rug went on clearance within the past few months, so we already bought that for the room. Today we went out and bought the bed, mattress and safety rail, along with two sets of sheets and the waterproof protector for the nights he pees through his diaper, or when we potty train and he wets the bed. Tomorrow morning Bob and I will switch over his room in the morning while my parents watch him, and we'll bring him home to nap in his bed for the first time. I would feel better having a nap be first just to see what he thinks and how he sleeps. I think he'll just love finally us giving him a pillow in his bed.

Tonight we escaped the heat a little bit and had some sprinkler time at like 7:45 at night. Jacob enjoyed it, and ended up playing with his buddy Jack and a few other kids. Jack and Jacob are so cute together, and tonight they took turns holding a lightning bug.

Looking forward to tomorrow, although I cannot believe my first baby is turning into a little boy and getting his first bed. How quickly these 25 months have gone. Even though I'm excited for Jacob to get his bed and have a little boy room, I can't believe he's growing up and changing so quickly. Bob and I went through some pictures from Jacob's first month the other night and it was hard to even remember him being that small. Even though I miss some of the baby, I love the little boy he is turning into. He is so funny, has the cutest laugh in the world, and is just so happy. He still sucks his thumb and twirls his hair, which reminds me he's only barely two. But, he says please and thank you without being asked, shares, talks with his friends, and orders for himself when we go out to eat. He makes up his own games, plays tricks, and has definite opinions of his own. I can't wait to see him develop into such a wonderful little boy. I am already so proud of him, his manners, his great behavior, and his loving, compassionate side.

Feeding the Ducks

We've been spending quite a bit of time over at Grandma and Grandpa's house this week, which Jacob is thoroughly enjoying. It cooled off a little bit last night - enough for us to take a quick walk. I grabbed some rolls and Jacob set off to feed the ducks at the neighborhood lake.

Relaxing back at my parents' house before bed. Watching Thomas, and apparently Jacob needed a foot rest.

Wednesday has been off to a busy start. We headed over to the Wiley's for playgroup. Jacob had a good time, until he decided he didn't want anyone else in his space or knocking over his toys. He's very particular about toys, and he doesn't like crashing or knocking them over once he has them set up. And, in a group of boys, that's a little hard to accomplish. But, we still had a great time. Just wish it wasn't so darn hot out so we could get outside a little more!

Tomorrow will probably be a lot of getting stuff done around the house. I have a list going for Bob of things we need done that I can't do (clean the gutters, install the new garbage disposal, etc.), that I really want done before he heads back to work in August. I can't believe our summer is almost over together. It's been so nice having an extra set of hands around the house, especially while I was still in my first trimester. But, I think we'll all be ready for our normal schedule in a few weeks. We still have a few more things on our "summer" list of things we wanted to do with Jacob before Bob goes back to school, so we'll work on knocking a few of those off the list in the next few weeks as well.

Baby Shower Fun

Saturday, Mom and I headed up to Valparaiso for a baby shower. Great car ride to just talk and enjoy the company without multi-tasking taking care of Jacob. Missed him dearly, but nice to spend some time with my mom and the women in my family. We picked up Grandma and headed to the shower. My cousin and his wife are having a little boy, and it was so nice to celebrate their growing family. It's surprising sometimes how quickly the past two years have gone by with Jacob. It seems like such a long time ago that was me opening up gifts at my baby shower and getting Jacob's room ready and wondering what it would feel like to bring our little boy home for the first time. And now here we are getting ready to get room number two ready (well, whenever we get Jacob his first big boy bed).

Mom and me at the shower.

The cake - they both ride motorcycles.

Me, Grandma, and Brenna (my oldest cousin's 11-year-old daughter)

Me "measuring" Jenn - not the best picture of me. Darn the awkward 3.5 month pregnant body where you just look chubby!

Jenn, the mom-to-be, looked great, and the shower was beautiful. She's much braver than I was, letting us guess how big her belly was.

As great as it was to have a nice, relaxing day, it was so wonderful to make it home in time to spend time with Jacob before he went to bed. I have to admit, I absolutely love just being home and playing with him. Even though it's so nice for a break now and then, especially while I'm pregnant, I love coming home.

Sunday was low key - spent time with Mom and Dad while Bob worked most of the day. I did take advantage of school supply sales and hit up Wal-Mart and stocked up on glue sticks, glue, crayons, markers, construction paper and colored pencils for the year. Better to buy crayons for a quarter than $1.50 in December.

Not much planned for this week, either, since it is just so darn hot. We have to make a trip to the outlet mall at some point before Bob heads back to work. It's funny, but we still do "back to school" shopping before Bob heads back to work for the year just to take advantage of the sales. And, he normally needs new work shoes each year, and I make him weed out some of his old polos and buy new ones. But, I do not want to go outlet shopping in 90 degree weather with a two year old, so we are waiting.

Boy likes to shop

Jacob decided this morning he needed a new toy. I let Bob sleep in a little bit this morning and spent some time with Jacob. He played with his trains and then stood up and looked at me, and then scanned the room looking for something. From shows, he knows that his train, Percy, pulls mail cars. However, we don't have mail cars for Percy. Jacob looked at me and said, "Mail cars for Percy, nope. Go Toys R Us get some." Then he started walking to the door. Apparently he understands the shopping concept way too well!

He's getting a great imagination. At lunch today he had his fork dangle off the edge of the table and said, "Oh no, help me milk." He then took his milk and pretended to help the fork back up onto the table. He plays like this with his cars, but it was so funny to see him pretend with his fork and milk.

A few nights ago, Jacob stuck his foot in a bucket and told me he was going to the beach, and then proceeded to try to carry himself while standing in the bucket.

Yesterday we took Jacob to the Children's Museum. It turned out to be a very busy day, but he had a great time. We also decided to take Jacob to the Lilly Theater in the basement - they performed a 40 minute Winnie the Pooh play. We weren't sure how Jacob would do since he's so young, but he actually really enjoyed it. He was so excited every time the characters came out, and was quick to point out when they were looking for things on stage. When Pooh left the stage at the end, he stopped at Jacob and rubbed his head. Jacob beamed and was so excited. When we got out of the theater, Jacob got to meet Pooh, Eeyore, Rabbit and Tigger. Eeyore gave him a big hug and asked him if he liked the show. Jacob smiled and said yes. I love that he's not afraid of costumes and mascots and everything. He was so excited to shake all of their hands and smiled at all of them.

We've also been spending lots of time reading library books. Jacob is doing the summer reading program - we get points for reading to him as well. We did the program with him last year, too. It's nice to get some free kids meals and books and stuff just for reading to him like usual. The only thing is that now the library is crowded during the summer and Jacob is use to having the children's section mostly to himself during our visits.

Tomorrow Jacob will have some quality Daddy time while I head to a baby shower in Valpo for my cousin's wife who is due in August. It'll be nice to see my aunts and Grandma, and to ride up with my mom and actually get to have a conversation instead of broken bits while Jacob is with us.

Terrible Two Time

Well, it's really not that terrible. Jacob is just getting his own opinions, and figured out he could say "stop it, mommy," just as easily as I tell him to stop doing things. He's hit a few times this week, but that's not going to last! Sometimes it's hard to be mad at him when he then says "sorry hitting mommy," but he knows better and we just move on. At least he's only hitting me for now and not other people! And really, it's only a few times - we are just so use to him never misbehaving and never having that mischievous side that we knew it would come sooner or later. He's just so nice that we have to be thankful that he is always so good, which makes the one or two days that he acts out seem so bad.

He's singing more songs now, and getting to the point where he initiates conversation with what he wants to talk about instead of just what's right in front of him. Yesterday he started asking for a chocolate shake without us talking about anything for dessert! He's now counting to 3, and said "A, B, C" today - he's had his colors down pat for so long that he never had much interest in letters until recently. He just turned 25 months old, and we think he must be growing because he's been really tired and eating like a crazy man.

Went to the grocery store today and saved $65. And, $20 came from coupons! We were excited. Go coupon binder! I don't normally buy diapers from Meijer, but we had three $2 off Meijer coupons for Pampers, and if you scan their coupon first you can also use a manufacturer coupon, and we ha three $2 off coupons for those as well. $4 off per pack made us pretty happy! We also cleaned out our pantry and threw away some things we are positive we have had since we lived in our apartment our first year of marriage. Oops.

Happy 4th!

Saturday was pretty busy and Jacob is exhausted today! The morning was still great weather before the heat hit, and we ended up playing outside for a while with our neighbor's little girl, Kylee, for a while. Until Jacob said he wanted a drink and it was already lunch time! Bob got some time to cut the grass and take care of the yard a little bit while we played and were out of his way which was nice. After Jacob's massive nap we headed up for a cookout at the Boden's where the Wiley's joined as well. With five kids all under the age of four, it's amazing how well they play and how little meltdowns occur with the group. They get along really well and it was nice for a little bit of adult time when the kids were playing so well together. We ended up not leaving until almost 9:30, so Jacob fell asleep on the way home and was still pretty tired this morning. He's still talking about his friends today, though!

Today is pretty low-key...hanging out with my parents and setting off some little fireworks tonight. This time last year Jacob was terrified, so hopefully he'll enjoy them this year.

Baby is singing

What a great week we have had! Wonderful weather for Jacob to spend long periods of time outside without me chasing him around with water. We went to the zoo yesterday and it was probably the best weather we have ever had at the zoo. We were there right when it opened, so we were able to escape the crowds of campers that are now making their rounds. It's so funny to see what Jacob is interested in because he changes every time we go. I don't think he has a favorite animal because he latches on to a new one each time. He does love the cheetahs though - every time he just says "cheetos go zip zip." Yes, he calls them cheetos, and zip zip came from a book we read that has that as how fast cheetahs run. This time at the zoo, chickens won and we spent probably 20 minutes in front of those things. We had a picnic out under the trees and headed back in to see the penguins and the oceans building since we normally skip it when it is super busy. Then we headed to see the butterflies, which Jacob has never seen before. A butterfly landed on Bob and stayed there for a while, which Jacob thought was pretty cool. Jacob ended up getting soaked because as I took a picture of the butterfly on Bob, Jacob splashed like crazy in a little fountain. Oops!

This morning we had my second OB appointment and got to hear the heartbeat - 175! Jacob always had a very high heartbeat, too, but supposedly they are suppose to slow down as the baby grows. I think Jacob's was always in the 170s though, so we'll see! When Jacob heard the heartbeat, the nurse told him that was baby. He said, "baby singing!" Kind of true, buddy! Only 2 more months and we can find out if we are having a boy or girl! But, everything from my labs came back normal, which I was thankful for since I had preeclampsia with Jacob. I guess I have a 10-15% chance of having preeclampsia again, but my doctor isn't too concerned because I developed it so late with Jacob - right at 38 weeks and we induced the same day. We'll see! I actually lost about a pound during my first trimester - must be running after Jacob all the time! Still no maternity clothes, but the belly is definitely getting larger now! Jacob loved the doctor - he left with like six stickers of cars and dinosaurs.

Looking forward to this weekend - we have a cookout to go to and having my parents down on the 4th for some yummy food and little fireworks when Bob gets off work.

In other news, I thought I remembered a recipe for raspberry brownies...turns out I didn't. I saw it on tv and swore she said a cup of raspberry jelly. Definitely too much and we now have raspberry goo with a hint of brownie. Darn it!